US/Assassinations since 1945

 US/Assassinations since 1945(assassination)

Perpetrators	US

Countries where the US has assassinated or attempted to assassinate a movement leader

The US has made more than 50 attempts to assassinate political party leaders according to William Blum in "Killing Hope: U.S. Military and C.I.A. Interventions since World War II", 2003. Noam Chomsky called this book "Far and away the best book on the topic.". Former CIA officer John Stockwell called the same book "The single most useful summary of CIA history."

All such operations are illegal and almost all such killings are aimed at geopolitical objectives. In almost no cases can any clear humanitarian benefit be identified, even if the target is/was indeed tyrannical.

While bombings with aircraft leave evidence in many cases, covert operations may be difficult to prove.

Date	Country	Details	Disputed?
2011	Pakistan	Osama Bin Laden. Killing of a captured man.	Maybe
2003	Iraq	Saddam Hussein and his two sons. Two killings and a semi-judicial execution.	Maybe
2002	Afghanistan	Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, Islamic leader and warlord	Maybe
2001	Afghanistan	Invasion of Afghanistan, followed by an unsuccessful attempt to catch Osama bin Laden in the mountains of Tora Bora.	No
1998	Afghanistan	Osama bin Laden, leading Islamic militant. Cruise missiles followed by a full-scale invasion.	Maybe
1993	Somalia	Mohamed Farah Aideed, prominent clan leader. Failed attempt but he died later.	Maybe
1991	Iraq	Saddam Hussein, leader. Attempt to kill him?	Maybe
1985	Lebanon	Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, Shiite leader (80 people killed in the attempt)	Maybe
1984	Nicaragua	The nine comandantes of the Sandinista National Directorate	Maybe
1983	Nicaragua	Miguel d'Escoto, Foreign Minister	Maybe
1983	Morocco	Gen. Ahmed Dlimi, Army commander	Maybe
1982	Iran	Ayatollah Khomeini, leader	Maybe
1980- 1986	Libya	Muammar Qaddafi, leader, several plots and attempts upon his life	Maybe
1976	Jamaica	Michael Manley, Prime Minister	Maybe
1976	Chile	exiled Chilean Foreign Minister Orlando Letelier is blown up in Washington DC, part of Operation Condor with at least tacit US support	?
1975	Zaire	Mobutu Sese Seko, President.	Maybe
1972	Panama	General Manuel Noriega, Chief of Intelligence. Captured alive and been imprisoned ever since.	Maybe
1970s, 1981	Panama	General Omar Torrijos, leader	Maybe
1970	Chile	Gen. Rene Schneider, Commander-in-Chief of Army.	Maybe
1970	Chile	Salvador Allende, President unsuccesful US supported coup "Project FUBELT"	No
1967	Bolivia	Che Guevara, revolutionary leader. CIA-organized military operation ends in capture and execution by the Bolivian Army.	Maybe
1965 - 1956	France	Charles de Gaulle, President	Maybe
1965	Dominican Republic	Francisco Caamaño, opposition leader	Maybe
1965	Zaire	President overthrown and replaced by Mobutu, see entry for 1961, deposing of Lumumba.	No
1960s	Cuba	Raúl Castro, high official in government	Maybe
1960s - 1970s	Cuba	Fidel Castro, President, many attempts on his life including poisoned cigars.	No
1963	South Vietnam	Ngo Dinh Diem, President. Successful attempt to replace one puppet leader with another.	Maybe
1963	Iraq	The CIA supports the Ba'athists, including Saddam Hussein, in a coup in Iraq against the Qassim government.	No
1961	Dominican Republic	Gen. Rafael Trujillo, dictator since 1930 shot dead in 1961.	Yes
1961	Zaire	In June 1960, Patrice Lumumba became the Congo's first prime minister after independence from Belgium. Calls for the nation's economic liberation and is branded a communist. Eleven days later, the mineral rich Katanga province, owned by Belgium and prominent Eisenhower administration officials, seceedes. Lumumba dismissed in September at the instigation of the United States, and in Jan 1961 assassinated at the express request of Dwight Eisenhower. Several years of civil conflict and chaos end in the CIA backed deposing of President Joseph Kasavubu and the 1965 accession to power of the CIA linked Mobutu Sese Seko. Mobutu ruled and robbed the country for more than 30 years (a "kleptocracy") while the Zairian people lived in abject poverty.	No
1961	Haiti	Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier, leader	Maybe
1950s- 1970s	Costa Rica	José Figueres, President, two attempts on his life	Maybe
1960	Iraq	Brig. Gen. Abdul Karim Kassem, leader	Maybe
1959	Cambodia	Norodom Sihanouk, leader. And again, 1963, 1969.	Maybe
1957	Egypt	Gamal Abdul Nasser, President	Maybe
1955	India	Jawaharlal Nehru, Prime Minister	Maybe
1951	Iran	Mohammed Mossadegh, Prime Minister	No
1951	North Korea	Kim Il Sung, Premier	Maybe
1950s (mid)	Philippines	Claro M. Recto, opposition leader	Maybe
1950s, 1962	Indonesia	Sukarno, President	Maybe
1950s	China	Prime minister Chou En-lai, several attempts on his life	Maybe
1950s	Germany	CIA/Neo-Nazi hit list of more than 200 political figures in West Germany to be "put out of the way" in the event of a Soviet invasion	Maybe
1949	Korea	Kim Koo, opposition leader	No

Recent Developments

The CIA has long had a policy of assassinating individuals for a mixture of reasons. Formerly, these attacks were covert, but increasingly, the US government is open about assassinating anyone whom it pleases. The official narrative, however, avoids the word assassination, preferring the euphemism "targetted killing". Attacks are being made on individuals or leaders of quite small groups who are post hoc designated "terrorists". Since 2011 there have been killings of nuclear technicians in Iran. Drones are proving increasingly effective at killing targets, and are even being programmed to make autonomous decisions about whom to kill.

See also

• US Bombing campaigns since 1945
• US Sponsored Regime-change efforts since 1945

 

Related Document

Title	Type	Publication date	Author(s)	Description
Document:Harold Pinter - 2005 Nobel Prize lecture	speech	7 December 2005	Harold Pinter	Harold Pinter's Nobel Prize acceptance speech made by video-link to the ceremony in Norway because of his illness. He was in the terminal stages of cancer. The speech is inspirational in its scathing rejection of Western (especially US) foreign policy objectives and methods.

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